Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959)

I'm going to break from tradition and cover something this week that is actually a good movie! Or, at least, one widely considered to be good in so far as reviews and reception are concerned. I mean, it's not that I haven't covered a good movie before now because, on occasion, I have. Sometimes by accident, sometimes by design, but the modus operandi of the blog is that we generally look at bad movies. That being said, for Disney Week this week, a part of the blog that generally tends to buck the trend, I'm going to cover a really obscure 1950's live action Disney movie: Darby O'Gill and the Little People. The movie focuses on the eponymous Darby O'Gill trying to get his hands on a pot of gold with a leprechaun named King Brian standing in his way, according to the blurb.  I'll be honest, I don't quite know what to expect. I know largely nothing about the Irish literacy source material upon which the movie is based, and from what I can gather the movie - whilst positively received - went largely un-noticed despite having 2 cinematic runs and a home video release in 1981 and I think it's safe to say it's not going to be one you will easily find in those fancy looking nice DVD or Bluray cases that you sometimes find in movie sections. But it does seem to remembered with some fondness and still holds a lovely, shiny 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, an accolade which most movies that end up being covered on here can't really lay claim to. So in a strange kind of way I am looking forward to this one, if for nothing else but it does also look a little bit odd and weird... and I'm sorta into that...

Darby O'Gill (Albert Sharpe) is a Caretaker for Lord Fitzpatrick's estate and lives in a small Irish town with his daughter and, seemingly, the towns most eligible bachelorette; Katie (Janet Munro). When his Lordship (Walter Fitzgerald) arrives unannounced and catches Darby shirking on his duties, his installs Michael McBride (Sean... Sean Connery?!) in his place, retiring Darby on half pay and effectively asking him to leave the gatehouse, which he and Katie currently call their home, in return for taking up home in a smaller cottage. Owing to their good relationship, Lord Fitzpatrick gives Darby two weeks before he and Katie have to move out but Darby, rather than see his successor bunking at the local inn, offers Michael a place to stay, much to the err... pleasure of young Katie. Meanwhile, spurred on by his mother, local meathead Pony Sugrue (Kieron Moore) fancies himself as the new Caretaker and by proxy, Katie's suitor, and introduces himself to the passing Lord Fitzpatrick who, to be honest, looks like he couldn't care less about meeting the lad. That evening Darby heads out on an errand to collect a bell for the local parish church when, after chasing his disobedient horse to the top of some ruins, he accidentally falls down a well and awakes to find himself being observed by two leprechauns. They take him prisoner / gently persuade him to meet their king; King Brian (Jimmy O'Dea) with everyone being very familiar with who Darby O'Gill is, given his run in's with leprechauns in the past. After a bit of chit chat about all the leprechaun treasures, King Brian lands the gut punch and tells Darby that one you arrive "here" - here being the home of the leprechaun's, there's no going back, which Darby doesn't take very well. But King Brian calms him down a bit when he says they have done what they have done in order to get Darby out of trouble after witnessing him being relieved of his duties earlier today. Hatching a plan to escape, and knowing leprechauns like he does, Darby uses a fiddle to play The Foxes Chase, a song which whips the leprechauns into a frenzy and causes them to charge out into the night to go hunting. Using this moment to conveniently slip out with them Darby escapes, but not before trying to help himself to some of the treasure first! Anticipating that King Brian might come after him, Darby hatches a plan in his stables back home to capture King Brian and hold him until sunrise in order to obtain three wishes, and when King Brian shows up the pair play a drinking game that results in King Brian becoming drunk and distracted until morning strikes. King Brian reacts angrily when he realises what happened and threatens Darby who just laughs his way through it until he decides to set his cat: Ginger on King Brian which quickly convinces the King to change his attitude! King Brian grants Darby three wishes with Darby's first wish being that King Brian cannot return to the land of the fairies and is on Darby's beck and call for at least a fortnight. As soon as King Brian agrees, Darby whips him up in a potato sack and stores him in a wooden chest! That out of the way, Darby sets off to do what he'd planned to do in the first place; retrieve the bell for the church, whilst Katie and Michael appear to be bonding slightly, with Darby at the moment; keeping it a secret as to why Michael is on the scene and that they have to leave the gatehouse. Returning with the bell, Darby makes it no secret that he's carrying around with him the king of the "little people." inside his bag, a story so fantastical that the town struggle to believe him, all except his friends in the local inn who watch on fascinated as he gifts King Brian a drop of whisky, although keeping him out of sight all the time. Later on Darby goes to visit Michael at the Lord's estate, where Michael mistakes Darby for a poacher, when he pressures Darby into opening his bag, Michael can only see a rabbit, and not the King of the leprechauns. When Darby says "oh I wish you could see him." King Brian duly grants the wish with Darby realising he's been tricked into giving one of his last 2 wishes away. Back at home Darby and King Brian get into a bit of a scuffle but it quickly ends when Darby reveals he doesn't know what he wants to wish for with his last wish, only wanting to wish for something for his daughter but not knowing what to wish for her. The pair strike an agreement that if Katie was to meet a steady guy who would keep her right then Darby would wish his last wish, with King Brian telling Darby to leave it all to him. He duly goes and visits both Michael and Katie in their sleep trying to convince each of how desirable the other is but seemingly isn't very successful with either of the pair. However it must have had some effect as the pair appear to grow closer and almost get together until their fun is spoiled by Pony Sugrue showing up and almost getting into a fight with Michael. When Michael confronts Katie about what happened, the pair end up finally kissing, witnessed by Darby and King Brian watching from afar. The pair celebrate and Darby promises to wish his last wish tomorrow. The following morning a postcard from Lord Fitzpatrick arrives for Michael, but finds it's way into the hands of Pony and his mother. It revealing the truth; that Michael is instructed as the new caretaker and Darby retired. Seeing an opportunity to both spoil the relationship between Michael and Katie and also seize the caretaker job, Pony sees to it that Katie gets to see the postcard. She reacts angrily, beginning to pack everything away in the gatehouse when Michael turns up and when Michael tries to reason with her and asks her to stay with Darby, she storms out. At the Inn, Darby gathers half the town to witness him make his final wish with King Brian and is about to make his wish when Katie interrupts them, causing the bag to tip over and King Brian to bolt, appearing as a rabbit to the rest of the town. Come nightfall, still angry with Michael, Katie runs away, heading for the cottage. As Michael goes to go after her he is attacked and left unconscious on the estate by Pony, intending for him to be found the next morning by Lord Fitzpatrick and fired for being a drunkard. Darby returns back to the house and finds the postcard to Michael and dashes to the estate where he finds and revives an unconscious Michael. They realise that Katie is chasing an illusion of a horse to the kingdom of the fairies, and head after her only to find an unconscious Katie on the side of the cliff. Bringing her back home they quickly learn that Katie is stricken with a horrible fever and is slowly slipping away. When Darby hears the wail of a Banshee outside, he dashes out of the room to come face to err.... face? with the Banshee and witnesses the Death Coach coming to take away Katie's soul. Crying out for King Brian, he appears to Darby where Darby makes it his third wish that he takes the place of Katie which King Brian reluctantly agrees to. As the carriage takes him away, King Brian appears and the pair reminisce about the adventures they had, with King Brian accidentally tricking Darby into making a fourth wish, which in doing so, cancels out his last 3 wishes altogether. King Brian ejects Darby from the coach, effectively bringing him back from the dead and reversing everything that happened. In the closing scenes Michael gets his own back on Pony by decking him in the Inn and then with Katie, the pair travel off on the back of a cart driven by Darby and his horses as they sing to each other.

Wow so alot happens in the last like 20 minutes of this film... but yeah this was pretty good! I quite enjoyed it and it wasn't at all as weird and odd as I expected it to be. It was certainly different... and very Irish, I kinda feel like unless you understood certain bits of Irish culture you might struggle a little bit with this one, and not being Irish myself I sorta did a little bit in places but it didn't spoil it for me and in fact before I knew where I was, I was two thirds of the way through! So yeah this was a different one but enjoyable! I liked it.

Albert Sharpe as Darby is a refreshing lead, being a much older man than maybe some of the stereotypical leading characters, and it gave the whole movie a bit of a different edge. He's a very likeable and relatable character with it and Albert Sharpe did a really good job in his portrayal and it looked like he really enjoyed playing the role, he certainly put alot into it. But it was nice, and interesting, to have a different character taking front and centre for a change, especially when that character is as much fun to watch as Darby was.

Equally the rest of the cast were also pretty decent and it's clear that everybody was putting in alot of effort on this one. Sean Connery was a bit of an unusual feature although this was very early on in his career and only his 7th movie, it was difficult to move passed the fact that it was Sean Connery in the role! And he was pretty decent with it although essentially was there just the play the role of Katie's eventual love interest and in a supporting function to Darby as the main character. It was interesting to see him at such an early point in his career though and I'm sure he had no idea the heights he would go on to reach!

But to get back to the movie, despite the slightly different subject matter, I felt like it was handled fairly sensitively and considerately. It would have been easy for this one to slip into exploitive territory with the whole leprechaun stuff, but I felt like the movie did a pretty good job of handling it, and the leprechauns were cast and portrayed with as much respect as the human characters in the movie. King Brian is obviously the main feature and he is portrayed on par with the rest of the characters in the movie and it's clear that the subject matter is treated with the dignity and respect it needs in order to be properly appreciated.

And storyline wise I thought it was well put together. The movie does a good job of building a tale from start to finish and it also doesn't play out too predictably. Although it does manage to check off a fair number of Disney tropes I felt like it was at least done differently enough this time that it stayed interesting and engaging. That notwithstanding, to build a story also that remains entertaining once you move passed the novelty of it being a movie about leprechauns is impressive enough and the characters all do a really good job of absorbing your attention that they become as much a part of the story themselves, regardless of the fact that there's leprechauns involved! I appreciate there was some strong subject matter to fall back on, but even so I felt like it built a good movie that told a story from start to finish that was interesting and enjoyable to watch.

In terms of production everything here was spot on which, to be fair, you would expect nothing lesser than when it comes to a Disney production. The cinematography, even for the time, was pretty decent and the movie is scored with a handful of music pieces appropriate to the Irish folk setting that it borrows it's aesthetic from. Everything is spot on and there's no room for any any criticism so far as the movie production is concerned. And they even do a really good job of portraying the leprechauns as smaller compared to the human characters. Almost seamlessly so.

And, really, no room for criticism of anything else! If I had to pick fault I'd say that maybe Sean Connery and some of the other characters are a little bit vanilla and a little bit stereotypical. I think if perhaps you aren't prepared to be invested by the Irish mannerisms and all the 'Irish-ness' of the whole thing then you are potentially going to have quite a hard time with this one. And there are times when they use alot of very archetypical Irish phrases that might be difficult to understand unless you know specifically what the characters are talking about. But for me, none of the aforementioned really spoiled this movie for me and even with the linguistical issues you still at least are given an idea of what's going on. 

I think the only thing that really hinders this movie is kind of how niche it is and how pigeonholed it finds itself. Owing to the source material and the faithful way the movie is produced, it is going to limit it's target audience somewhat and isn't going to be universally accessible and that is something of a shame because it features some really good acting and a really entertaining story. I genuinely feel if it was more accessible I think it would be something of a bigger deal but in it's current state it does at least have the accreditation of being maybe one of the best obscure Disney movies you are going to find on DisneyPlus! I'd genuinely watch this again. Might even try and talk my partner into watching it with me actually, she's mad into Disney stuff. 4 out of 5.